Page 252 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘It’s not my fault they had a sharpshooter who got by you.’

‘Watch it, Little Harker.’

Kade sighs. ‘What did I just say?’

‘Sorry, baby.’

✴

Lachlan drives.

Riley sits beside him with one hand wrapped around the overhead grab handle, directing them through Varrow City without once consulting a map. For someone who hardly ever leaves, he seems to know it well.

Kade takes the back seat.

It feels wrong. He’s spent years guarding Riley and now he sits behind both men, only catching their faces in the rear-view mirror or passenger window.

Along the way, the skies open up.

Central Varrow is busy this time of night. Heavy rain lacquers the roads black enough to reflect the neon signs they pass, creating a dark rainbow Kade is helplessly curious about. The buses that crash lazily through puddles. The people who seek shelter from the downpour and the ones who don’t bother. The high-rises Kade can see from the Tower.

They pass underneath them now, driving into the core.

‘Left at the lights,’ Riley directs.

Lachlan changes lanes. ‘You need to tell me about the entrance.’

‘I don’t need to tell you anything.’

‘Riley,’ Kade says quietly from the back. ‘He’s on our side.’

‘He’s on your side.’

‘And Kade is on yours, so trust me or don’t, but I need to know.’

‘The Front has something called Ghostline,’ Riley explains after a hesitant beat. ‘It’s a train running continuously through the disused subway tunnels beneath Varrow. No passengers or stops. Ghostline carries cleverly concealed surveillance equipment, continuously sweeping the radio spectrum as it moves.’

Lachlan glances across at him. ‘How do you know that?’

‘Seth told me years ago that he’d noticed the same interference moving through different districts at regular intervals. He clocked the pattern.’

‘He was your Overseer, right?’

‘He was,’ Riley confirms tonelessly. ‘I had Cole and Finn map the interference. It took months for them to work their magic and trace the signals back to one specific source. I verified it myself.’

Kade can’t think of a single time this has been mentioned, let alone an instance years ago when Riley left the Tower without him.

‘You’ve known where the Front were all this time?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why didn’t you attack?’

Rain races across the windscreen.

Softly, Riley says, ‘Believe it or not, I don’t want to attack anyone.’

Kade stares at what he can see of his brother in the dark glass.